My 4th graders do wire sculptures but we use telephone wire. I have a parent source who keeps me in stock- after you strip the plastic coating you have about 50 colored wires. It is very bendable and they can use their hands to twist it. We start the unit by doing gesture drawings so the kids are thinking about how humans look in action. I let the model stand on the table and they draw everyone in the class. So we move from 2-d to 3-d. We talk about symmetry in the human form. I cut the wire about a yard long and they start by folding the wire over to find the middle. Twist to make a circle about the the size of quarter maybe a little bigger Twist a couple times for the neck. Then make two loops for the arms (picture 2 loops when you tie shoes) the trick is to make a loop from each wire not make the arms out of the same side. I have them measure (eyeball it) during the whole process to try to keep the wires the same length as you work. So you hold it
together with one hand and twist the wire until there is only a little circle left for the hand. The hand circle obviously needs to be a smaller circle than the head. Then switch and twist the other arm. Then for the legs you bring the end of each wire up to the intersection where the arms are and twist it out so you have a leg and a foot. At this point the legs and arms all intersect at the same place in the middle so you twist the legs around each other to make the body. This probably doesn't make much sense because you want to see it. My 4th graders have some on our Artsonia site so you could see some finished products. We hot glue them to a piece of mat board.
http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=244229
hope this helps,
Jeryl in SC (but currently in Baltimore- yoohoo!) with Amy in TN ( who is also in Baltimore!)